Not surprising, since higher education is primarily word and literary driven by its very nature, few have focused attention on ways to acquire (through marketing research) softer forms of written, graphic and visual information to better capture audiences' attention.

UNTAPPED IDEAS
Where do you look for these ideas on your campus? Most institutions enjoy histories and traditions that comprise rich tapestries of ideas, emotions and stories. Yes, stories. Anecdotal information can provide the basis for powerful marketing. Reaching into our own histories and pasts we are able to find ideas that much better express our schools, missions, achievements and ambitions. For example, collecting stories from alumni about individual experiences can provide interesting and convincing marketing information. Consider asking these questions at your next alumni club meeting:

What was your most significant experience at XYZ U? What event or person made the greatest impact on you and why? Or... Describe your most vivid memory while a student at XYZ College.

These sort of "soft" questions, designed to evoke emotional responses, will yield valuable and powerful ideas you can use to capture the soul and essence of your school. Often you will discover thoughts and ideas that grab and hold audiences' attention.

The real souls of higher education are couched in history, tradition and stories. These are most often overlooked as people focus attention on new developments, programs, curricula, etc. As a result, interesting and unusual ideas are lost in a sea of numbers, information and quantifiable facts. Indeed, it is common for many schools to produce "fact booklets," while overlooking historical ideas that reach to the heart and soul of the school.

A PEOPLE BUSINESS
Higher education is a people business. Many of us, working to market higher education think of all the physical aspects of this business. There are many things to consider: courses, buildings, acres, books, fees, tuition, costs, etc. Number, figures and facts abound. But how often do we think of the more abstract and possibly much more powerful anecdotal information we can use to tell our story? The real heart and soul of an institution exists in these stories and human experiences, not in volumes of numbers and facts. Ours is a people business. Therefore we need to consider what it is that motivates people. Few facts turn people to action. Volumes of numbers are not necessarily convincing.

PASSIONS AND PERCEPTIONS
Many schools, it seems to me, have lost much of the passion that comprise today's (and yesterday's) educational experience. We have gravitated away from ideas that reach into the soul of our schools. Is this a function of our society as we move into a more technological world? Have we forgotten that which motivates us as individuals and as people? It is interesting to me that even higher educational academies with strong grounding in religion, for example, have given up much of what their founders thought important.

STORY TELLING
A recently re-discovered art, story telling, is being used as a tool for information acquisition and for promulgating organizational cultures. Consider the best story tellers in your school. Who are they? What are the tales they reveal? How can those tales contribute towards marketing your school? What common threads do they communicate? How do they relate to your school's mission? Ambitions? How can you use these ideas to better articulate your school's benefits and attributes to target audiences? How can you reach back into anecdotal history to better describe today and tomorrow?

AFRAID?
We seem to be afraid, in higher education, to reach in to these ideas that are close to the heart. We shy away from emotional and soul-searching ideas. We are afraid to articulate these idea ourselves and are often afraid to ask others about them. We mask these emotional ideas with facts and figures that serve as "safe" barriers, while real and powerful humanistic ideas are concealed. Stuffy is often preferred over informal. People issues are buried with ideas that often just replicate old thoughts. Vital is replaced with stale. Action is taken over by passivity. Then we wonder why we are not achieving marketing results! Much of what you do de-markets your school!